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Create your own Banner Ad on Facebook

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Facebook has a new profile layout.  It is designed to make your experience more YOU-centric.  An interesting discovery has been made with regard to the photo strip at the top of your profile.  It can be made into a make-shift banner ad.  Oh yes, it’s true!

The top of your profile now has a photo strip that shows the images you have most recently been tagged in.  Seems pretty innocuous, however clever internet advertising people have figured out a way to capitalize on this space.

If you create images and tag yourself in the proper order you will be able to create what appears to be a banner ad.

Regular Profile

This is what a regular profile film strip looks like:

Facebook Film Strip

This is what most Facebook profile film strips look like.

Pretty simple. A series of 5 photos that you or your friends have tagged you in, meant to give people an idea of your recent photographic activity.

“Banner Ad” Profile

This is what a film strip tagged to look like a banner ad looks like.

The photo strip on facebook profiles creating what looks like a banner ad for Justin Bieber

It can't be linked. It can't be searched. But it can be seen when people land on your profile. Of course, these sections would contain images of Trevor... How would you turn your photo-strip into an ad?

*Image courtesy of Inside Facebook

Essentially images were tagged so they would appear sequentially in the film strip to look like a banner ad. Instead of having pictures that show tagged images of your life, you create a mini-mosaic creating a singular image out of 5.

If you click on the image it will take you to that photo, or segment of the banner ad. The caption could potentially have information about a website, product or promotional message.  But the picture itself would not link to any outside website.

Benefits of Tagging a Banner Ad

  • Another location online for putting your business message forward
  • Additional branding
  • Free
  • Tag your own profile
  • Tag and put a banner ad on another person’s profile*

*Read the disadvantages to see what can happen if you do this…

Disadvantages of Tagging a Banner Ad

  • It does not link to an outside site
  • CTR – No tracking of click-through rate – without a link there is no click-through
  • No metrics to analyze its effectiveness
  • Spam – you could get flagged for spam. If you tag someone else in your photos, to create a banner ad on another person’s profile page, you could get flagged for inappropriate activity and have your account deactivated. This is definitely a violation of the Facebook Terms of Service.
  • Spam? – if you tag your own profile you may still be at risk for being flagged for spam.  Even doing this to your own profile could be considered an abuse of the feature.  However, the likelihood that you will be noticed is much lower, because it is not like you are going to flag yourself(!)

How to do it

It is not as easy as it looks. Facebook does not put your full image in the tagged boxes. It takes a skewed thumbnail, most likely as a way to try to prevent this. However with a little perseverance you can figure out how to create a series of images that will line up.

If you are thinking of doing this, I would not suggest adding urls, business names or brand message. Basically anything that could be blatantly categorized as an ad should be avoided. Stick to an image, maybe even a name. Have something like “Welcome to…” “Your name here…with picture”

The question that remains is: will Facebook change this feature to prevent homemade banner ads? The spam possibilities are endless, but the potential for passive promotion on a personal page is huge.


photo of Lauren MacEwenLauren MacEwen is the senior strategist at 7 Veils Media, Inc., a premier social media firm for the adult entertainment industry.  She is a speaker at the upcoming AEE on the Selling through Social Networks panel and blogs regularly at www.7veils.com.  You can follow Lauren on Twitter: @7_veils